BEAUMONT, Texas - A 43-year-old federal prison chaplain has been sentenced for federal violations in the Eastern District of Texas, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Brit Featherston today. Eric S. Patrick, of Nederland, Texas pled guilty on January 19, 2017, to bribery of a public official and was sentenced to one...

LAREDO, Texas - A 46-year-old woman has been ordered to federal prison following her conviction for importing methamphetamine into the United States, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Abe Martinez. Sherie Lyn De Sylvia, a U.S. citizen who resided in Tijuana, Mexico, pled guilty February 22, 2017. Today, U.S. District Judge Marina...

LAREDO, Texas - A 41-year-old man from Laredo, has been ordered to prison following his conviction of the conspiracy possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Abe Martinez. Esequiel Villarreal pleaded guilty Dec. 15, 2016. Today, U.S. District Judge Diana Saldana ordered Villarreal to serve a 210-month-term...

LAREDO, Texas - The head of a marijuana trafficking cell, Mexican National Armando Javier Picazo Jimenez, 42, has pled guilty for his role in a conspiracy to traffic drugs from Laredo to the Dallas area via the use of tractor trailers, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Abe Martinez. In August 2013...

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - An indictment charging the former Tabasco, Mexico, Secretary of Finance has been unsealed following the arrest of his wife in the Houston area, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Abe Martinez. Jose Manuel Saiz-Pineda, 49, served as the Secretary of Finance of the Mexican State of Tabasco from...

WASHINGTON) - Three Madison, Connecticut high school students have won the grand prize in the Operation Prevention Video Challenge with a message about how not to let your life get “swallowed up by an opioid addiction.” The DEA, DEA Educational Foundation, and Discovery Education awarded Kyle Citrin, Clay Knibbs, and...

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets (OFAC) today identified the Ruelas Torres Drug Trafficking (Ruelas Torres DTO) and its leader, Mexican national Jose Luis Ruelas Torres, as Significant Foreign Narcotics Traffickers pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation (Kingpin Act). The Ruelas Torres DTO...

MCALLEN, Texas - The final two of four men involved in stealing 246 kilograms of marijuana, some of whom also conspired to carry and use a firearm during and in relation to that crime, have been ordered to prison, announced DEA Special Agent-in-Charge of the Houston Division Joseph M. Arabit...

SAN ANTONIO, Texas - Today, federal, state, and local authorities arrested 26 individuals, including “TMM General” Raul Ramos, and are looking for three others in connection with a heroin/cocaine trafficking operation in the San Antonio area announced United States Attorney Richard L. Durbin, Jr.; DEA Special Agent-in-Charge Joseph M. Arabit...

LAREDO, Texas - Three Laredo men have entered guilty pleas for their roles in a conspiracy to traffic drugs from Laredo to the Dallas area via the use of tractor trailers, announced DEA Special Agent-in-Charge of the Houston Division Joseph M. Arabit and Acting U.S. Attorney Abe Martinez. Armando Eloy...